Haiti relief sites opening in bursts

What began as a necessary collaboration with the American Red Cross to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti has now quickly expanded to a full-on community effort.

Just days after the earthquake rocked the island of Haiti, city officials set up drop-off locations for charitable donations at City Hall and the city's fire stations, according to city spokesman Matt Little. The city began taking in everything from canned meat and vegetables to batteries and baby wipes, candles and disposable diapers.

But the city's effort quickly expanded to other resources already in place and accustomed to working together including help from the community association of the South Middle River neighborhood, which has a heavy Haitian population, and the Haitian Grace Baptist Church on Andrews Avenue, which holds Sunday services at Warfield Park.

The greatest burden is borne by the Haitian Mission, known formally as Divine Mercy Catholic Church. Last October, the church building on Northwest Sixth Avenue was closed and the congregation absorbed by St. Clement Catholic Church.

Rev. Robes C. Charles, 49, St. Clement's Haitian-born pastor, has created a donation site on the property behind the church rectory. Volunteers stand behind a long table, gathering and boxing bales of blankets and cases of canned food. The church is also taking cash donations.

"We don't have room to store everything, so much of this will be moved to Notre Dame D'Haiti Catholic Church in Miami," Charles said. "People think this goes quickly, but it goes so slowly. The port in Haiti is small and there is not enough space to access the boats. There are so many boats waiting to unload. The distribution of food has not reached the people yet. "

So far Charles has made four trips to Haiti on a private jet furnished by a donor, and he points to the bug-bites on his face from sleeping outdoors with the multitude of homeless.

"At night the streets are blocked so people can sleep there," he said. "Their homes have been destroyed."

Rev. Luke Harrigan, head of the Haitian Grace Baptist Church, recently left for Haiti, according to the church's deacon Pierre LeMieux. The congregation has been meeting inside Warfield Park's gymnasium on Sunday mornings for the past eight years.

Volunteers have brought donations of water and worked with many of the children that come to Warfield Park.

"Some [have] had relatives die in the earthquake," said Sandra Sullivan, Warfield Park's program manager.

"I [got] together with members of the South Middle River Community Association and we came up with 'Hands and Seeds' to help replant Haiti," Sullivan said. "The kids cut out their hand prints on construction paper, and glue them down with packets of seeds."

The seed packets will eventually be sent to Haiti to help regrow the island's vegetation.